By: George Maley

For Classic Car Club enthusiasts all roads led to San Jose, California for the 50^th anniversary of the club’s founding. Starting the celebration with a cocktail party on Wednesday, January 9^th and continuing through Saturday’s final banquet on January 12^th, the 400 plus club members and guests will long remember the joyous occasion.

Indiana Region members attending were Director George Maley and his wife B.J. They had left a few days earlier with Bob Titlow and Helen Vogel touring San Francisco, Monterey, Carmel, San Simeon with its Hearst Castle, and Cambria before heading north to San Jose. Gene Perkins and Sally attended the gathering along with their beautiful 1942 Packard Darrin which scored 99.0 points in the judging for Premier Late class earning a 1^st Place trophy.

Hugh & Sally McKnight, Bob & Angela Westerman (Wyoming, OH), and Bill Tilden (Dunwoody, GA) also made the trek west to attend the Annual Meeting. Bobbie’Dine Rodda living in Glendale, CA didn’t have as far to come. It was also good to see Nannette Cook, who is living in San Diego, CA.

Overall the Annual Meeting was grand in every respect. The Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose, though food pricey, was otherwise delightful which superb service. The Californians out-did themselves by bringing 100 of the choicest Full Classics™ ever assembled under one roof, even one from Alaska. Rare custom creations of the Classic Era both foreign and domestic graced the exhibit hall across the park from the Fairmont. Upon entering the "concours" hall, it was as if one were entering a grand hotel saloon for the "customs" back in the 1930’s. The only ingredient missing were the many Persian oriental rugs scattered hither and yon in those grand hotel saloons of yesteryear.

As is now becoming common place, the annual meetings have now become "events" in contrast to the business meetings, car judging, and final banquets of years ago. To make the 50^th Anniversary celebration especially memorable, a full day bus tour of two but very different vehicle collections were viewed by almost every attendee.

Since there were so many attendees, the overall group was divided into two sub groups, each going to a different collection in the morning, meeting for lunch, and going to the other collection in the afternoon. The 1^st collection Group One saw was an Army tank collection of approximately 100 tanks, which were used in the various Military Wars of the 20^th century. These tanks all came from military powers, great and small. The owner is a unique individual by the name of Jacques Littlefield who performs his own restorations with a crew of nearly 15 men or more. Littlefield is presently requiring tanks at the rate of one every three weeks. He stated the cost of acquiring a tank is not overly great, but the average restoration time is longer than a full restoration of a Full Classic™.

From tanks our group traveled north of San Francisco (over the Golden Gate Bridge) to the Sausalito area where the two groups had a delightful California lunch at one of the swank country clubs in the area. Lunch was delicious and so extensive that most were unable to have a full dinner that evening.

After lunch, Group One continued its journey to the private collection of a noted collector, whose specialty is vintage Mercedes Benz and Classic European custom cars of the Classic Era. (The owner asked that no name be used nor were pictures allowed to be taken of the collection.) The display is done inside the confines of his vineyard and winery….the perfect place for an intimate and very private collection of spectacular vintage machinery.

The annual Meeting started 8:00 Friday morning per the usual meeting format. The biggest news was the adoption of the pre-1925 era, nearly identical classics, which for the time being will be on a "please apply" basis to become Full Classics™.

Re-elected to the National Board were Nick Fintzelberg, Joe Malaney, and Dennis Schellin. Christine Snyder and Phil Guilhem were elected to replace out-going Board Members George Holman and Hugh McKnight. With Hugh McKnight leaving the National Board, it was hoped that Sally Perkins would replace him by her election. She was elected to the National Board but not through the national election. The National Board met early Friday afternoon to elect the new officers and then adjourned to be continued Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. Bill Snyder (California) resigned from the National Board at that time because of business reasons. Ron DeWoskin and Sally Perkins were nominated to finish his term. Sally was elected will serve his remaining two years.

Friday night’s "Regional Awards Banquet" was held at the Blackhawk Museum located in Danville, California. Driving the distance in Indiana would normally take about an hour, but in California it was closer to two hours, in traffic, from the Fairmont. The cars at the Blackhawk are spectacular and the setting is equally impressive although rather surrealistic.

Regional awards were presented this evening. Indiana received one first, one second and three thirds. Overall the Indiana Region scored in the upper twenty-five percentile of all the regions. The 1^st place award was for the "Non Print Publication Trophy". This was the first time such an award was presented and particular thanks must be given to Shawn Miller, Editor and presently Assistant Director for his work in establishing and updating the website. The 2^nd place was for the Fitzgerald Trophy (National Associate Members) and the three third places were for Coons Trophy (Regional Improvement), Dietrich Trophy (Annual Meeting Attendance – 2001), and Turnquist Trophy (Regional Publications). If one wonders why the Indiana Region didn’t place for the CARavan® Award, it is because Indiana hosted the Hoosier-Bluegrass CARavan®, so was only counted in the Northeast CARavan®. The Dixie Region received their 25-year certificate and Lee Barthel was presented with the Classic Spirit Award.

Judging commenced Saturday morning. State law required that the battery be disconnected and the gas tank emptied and sealed. One set of judges worked for 10 to 12 hours, starting the previous Wednesday doing all of the mechanical judging which required the car to be running, as the Full Classics™ were brought into the building. Saturday’s judges were in teams as usual and completed the judging. From almost every aspect the judging went without a mishap resulting in four 100-point cars. One each in Primary Production 1925 – 1929, Primary Custom 1930 – 1932, Primary Custom 1933 – 1936 and Senior Custom 1933 – 1936.

Saturday night’s Final/Awards Banquet was the usual fan fare being chaired by the new president, Nick Fintzelberg. Distinguished guests wore formal attire in keeping with the beautiful ballroom of the Fairmont and the tradition of Classic Car Club of America.

For all those who attended the 50^th Anniversary celebration, it will be long remembered as one of the high-water marks of the automobile hobby world. Sincere thanks and congratulations are in order on a job well done to the NorCal Region, their Regional Director Joe Kohlbecher and most importantly Ed Gunther and all his helpers for putting on a magnificent 50^th Anniversary Annual Meeting.